Chronicles of the Red Sovereign

In a dark room, a man was sitting on a luxurious seat with a glass of wine on his hand. Behind him, blending well with the shadows was, a man dressed in black.

“Have you found him?” asked the man on the seat.

“He is inside the Imperial Academy, my lord.”

“Really now? Then that’s better. Do the job you are paid to do.”

“Yes, my lord.”

***

A month had passed since the beginning of school. Other than the occasional glares from Freya and her friends, and the glances from the student population, my life in the Imperial Academy was rather peaceful. Well, both mine and my friends’. Speaking of friends, Kai started hanging out with us after that one weekend at the first week of school. He would still go with Peter from time to time, but he would sometimes show up at our gatherings.

Kai li Syna was in the magic knight course and was a master archer. At least according to Thomas. He could wield light magic which was a rare form of magic. Suffice to say, he was a close friend of our group.

We also befriended a second year student from the alchemy department; Charles von Eichenstein. And yes, he was related to the headmaster. Charles was the headmaster’s grandson.

I met him by accident one afternoon. I was actually looking for Torii in the student council building when I accidentally entered his room while he was in the middle of an experiment. Without meaning to, I messed with his potions so it won’t explode on us and I seemed to have gotten his attention. After that, I would assist him on some of his experiments sometimes which I thought was not a bad thing since I practice alchemy myself.

Everything was well, until that one evening…

I just got out from taking a bath (I usually take a bath at least twice a day) and just entered my room when I suddenly felt something was off. Well for one, my room had a ward on it and somehow it got breached and I felt an aura inside the room.

I slowly made my way to the balcony doors. As I got closer to the part of my room where I placed a rack for my wet clothes and towels, I immediately lunged at the figure hiding at one of its corners. At lightning speed, I pressed two acupuncture points on his chest and he stopped moving.

“I- I-“

Once my sight was able to adjust clearly to the darkness of my room, I saw a familiar mop of white hair.

“Kai?” I called.

“Luna? This is your room?”

Before I could even respond, I felt a presence on my balcony. I noticed Kai’s eyes go wide so I was able to immediately tell something was wrong. I put my finger on my lips; a sign to not make a noise, and immediately masked my aura. I watched as a figure clad in black clothes, enter the open balcony doors of my room and his eyes, which were the only visible feature of his masked face, scan the room.

“Where the hell is that brat?” I heard him ask to himself.

I could see a glint of silver in his hands and saw a short blade, a dagger. I turned to Kai whose expression was filled with fear. Once the figure stopped in front of me, I immediately stretched out my hands to hit his head which caught him off guard and kicked his sides. He was able to block the second kick I was about to deliver and tried to stab me with the dagger he was carrying.

“I suggest you run little girl.” he snarled. “My business is not with you.”

“Your business is with a certain white-haired teenager, am I right?”

“How did you- He is here, isn’t he?”

Before the intruder was able to enter the room, I masked Kai’s presence.

“Old man, outsiders aren’t allowed inside the Imperial Academy without permission and males aren’t allowed in the girls’ dormitory. You just broke a bunch of rules.”

“You talk too much. I suppose I’ll get the brat and you’ll be collateral damage.”

He lunged at me but I was able to dodge him by dropping to the floor. I used my legs to swipe his feet off the floor in which I succeeded. But he was able to get back on his feet immediately. Unfortunately, he saw the spot where Kai was hiding. And since I made him immobile, he was in trouble.

The intruder’s attention immediately shifted to the unmoving Kai, but I was not about to let him hurt my friend. After running a few strides, I jumped and landed on his shoulder. I latched my legs on his on his neck and brought him down to the floor.

“Luna?” I heard Andrea call. She probably heard the commotion outside.

I locked the intruder’s arm with my legs, which made him drop his dagger. I then sat up, flipped him and hit a pressure point on his neck which knocked him out. I released a big sigh and turned to Kai who still held fear and shock in his eyes.

“Luna?” called Andrea again and knocked on my door.

“Andrea, can you call the dorm leader and the floor supervisor?” I asked after opening the door.

“Why?”

“I caught an intruder.”

“What?! Really? Okay, I’ll be back with them as fast as I can.”

Andrea ran out the door. I closed my door and returned to where Kai was. I released him from his immobile situation.

“How did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“External magic doesn’t work on me.” he said. “So how were you able to render me immobile?”

“Magic doesn’t work on you?” I asked in return. “Also, why is this guy after you?”

“Answer my question first.” he growled.

“Answer mine first. I saved your life.”

“Let’s talk tomorrow. I have to get out of here before your leaders arrive.”

“Wait! What if there are others outside?” I asked.

“There’s none. There’s only him.”

“Are you sure?” he nodded. “Fine. After practical lessons. Meet me at the usual hangout.”

“Will Thomas and the others be there?”

“Are you seriously planning to keep this between the two of us?”

“Makes sense.”

I watched him jump off from my balcony. He reinforced himself with combat magic, so he should be fine. A minute later, the dorm president and the floor supervisor arrived.

Shelly von Kylia, the girls’ dorm president was a fourth year student in the magic arts department. Meanwhile, seventh floor supervisor was Danica Fothermist, a second year student of the military arts department.

“Student Hysi, what happened?” asked Senior Shelly as she urgently opened the door to my room.

“This guy happened.” I pointed to the unconscious man on the floor of my room. I had already turned on the lights for better vision.

“Who is this?” asked Senior Danica. “Tell us what happened.”

“For the first question, I don’t know who this guy is. I have a habit of opening my balcony for a few hours before I go to sleep. After taking a bath, I entered my room to rest but this guy suddenly entered using the balcony.”

“Did he say what he wanted?” asked Senior Shelly.

“He said he was looking for someone, it wasn’t me though but since I saw him I’ll be collateral damage.” I sighed. “I had no other choice but to fight back since he lunged at me.”

“And you were able to knock him out?” asked one of my seniors with a skeptical look.

“Would you have preferred I killed him?” I questioned.

The two immediately shook their heads.

“Anyway, he will be waking up in a few hours. You can interrogate him then. Also,” I handed them a handkerchief which they asked what it was. “It’s poison.”

Senior Shelly opened the folded handkerchief and saw a tooth laid in it.

“This is-“

“It’s poison I tell you. This guy is obviously an assassin and people like him would rather die than succumb to interrogation. That fake tooth is filled with poison which they would crush once they’re in a dangerous situation.”

“What kind of poison is it? And how did you know that?” asked Andrea.

“I think the alchemy department will have a field trip researching about it. As for the last question, it’s a guess.” I said and smiled at my friend.

A few minutes later, teachers and members of the disciplinary committee arrived in my room and took the unconscious assassin away. One of the teachers strengthened the wards of my room and advised me to close my balcony doors.

The security inside the Imperial Academy became much tighter after the assassin incident. Many students felt sorry that I got attacked in my room while some (the usual) actually mocked me for it. Of course, I still needed to collect answers from a certain white-head since he was the target. And most importantly, I lied about the assassin for him.